Puppeteer's art style was adapted for Western audiences, according to game director Gavin Moore.

In a gamescom session attended by Digital Spy, Moore debuted original concept footage, before revealing that the game's art style was changed after it was shown to marketing teams in other territories.

"We're still in the magical theatre, we're still changing the sets, we still have puppets in the game, but we have a completely, utterly different art style.

"The reason is that I'd been living in Japan for ten years and I wanted to make a game that was fundamentally everything I loved about Japan, which was great."

Moore spent six weeks hand-animating the original concept video, before showing it to Sony.

"So we showed it to America and Europe, and Europe was kind of like, 'Yeah it's alright, but we think it's a little too Japanese', while America said, 'No, it's Japanese, it's never going to sell', and if you think about it, it's true, it's really niche.

"It's beautiful, but it's niche."

Moore said that the game is still full of cultural and comic references, and that characters break the fourth wall, but the team decided to change the art style.

The first act, for example, is very Western-looking, act two is very Japanese, while acts three and four adopt underwater and South American settings.

Elsewhere, Moore explained that the game was designed to entertain his son, who was very honest and vocal during testing sessions, and jokingly demanded royalties.

Players gain new abilities by finding and equipping a variety of heads, which open up new areas and gameplay opportunities.

Kutaro also has access to a pair of magical scissors, which are used to cut through the gaming environment, cut around objects and eliminate enemies.

Puppeteer will be available at retail and as a digital download exclusively for PlayStation 3. It will be available to purchase from September 10 in North America and September 11 in Europe. A demo was released earlier this week.